Surviving the Wild: Bison, Mustangs & Eagles of the American Prairie | Documentary

Nature is not a place to visit. It's our home. Nature is all that we see. Animals, insects disappearing into their surroundings, using deceptions, disguises, lures. Nature is all that we hear. The call of an eagle, the hiss of ocean spray, the rumble of thunder, the doings of a cricket. The wonderful beauty of nature, the crucial, fragile affinity between animal life and their environment. All of this is World of the Wild. The vast plains of central North America. With trees few and far between, this is a rolling landscape dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. The word prairie comes from the French meaning meadow. But despite what the name suggests, this is hardly a tame environment. In this exposed landscape, there is nowhere to hide and the wildlife is tested by scorching summers and frozen winters. In this episode, we examine bison, red foxes, wild horses, bald eagles, and pronghorns. Across the broad reach of America's Great Plains, there is one iconic animal that conjures both the heroic legends and violent history of the prairie. The bison. The largest land animal in the Americas, the bison is often referred to as buffalo due to their resemblance to their bovid cousins in Africa and Asia. Feared and celebrated, hunted and worshipped, the American bison is synonymous with its grassland environment. Standing around six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing over a ton, the burly bison is equipped to contend with the wolves and bears that share its prairie habitat. With males and females both armed with horns up to two feet long, it is rare for a healthy adult to fall victim to predation. For all their size, bison can move with surprising speed. Capable of maintaining a lumbering gallop over the wide open expanse of the plains, they can also reach charging speeds of over 60 kilometers an hour, three times faster than humans. While often appearing docile, bison have an unpredictably ferocious temperament, and in many parts of modern America, they account for more injuries to humans than bears. Sheltered by the nearly 5,000 kilometer length of the Rocky Mountain Range, the mid-continental location of the American prairie is far from the moderating effects of the ocean and experiences wide fluctuations in temperature. Enduring hot, humid summers and cold, frozen winters, the bison stands exposed year-round. The bison's remarkable fur coat is the key adaption to its survival against the elements of the Great Plains. Ironically, it was the demand for bison coats that almost led to their demise, seeing the species hunted close to extinction in the late 19th century. During the winter months, bison sport a thick mane-like coat which so effectively retains heat against their bodies that snow can settle on their outer hairs without melting. The distinctive hump of the bison is also an adaptation to their grassland habitat. During the harsh prairie winters, bison use their muscular humps to swing their heavy-boned heads back and forth. Acting as snow plows, they clear the way in order to feed on the grasses beneath. Once roaming the huge expanse of the American prairie in their tens of millions, during the 1800s, bisons were tragically overhunted for their meat and hides, taking the species to the brink of extinction. Maintained conservation efforts from environmentalists, ranchers and Native Americans have seen isolated herds of bison make a comeback. While no longer considered endangered, a lack of generic diversity is the legacy of the bison's brush with extinction. Today, efforts are being made to expand conservation herds further into their traditional lands in order to protect the bison into the future. Grasslands are among the world's least protected environments, and the American prairie is no exception. These open plains are not only exposed to the full force of harsh weather conditions, but also to the rapid changes being imposed by an ever-expanding human population. To survive here takes intelligence and resourcefulness. With its legendary reputation for cunning, the red fox is more than up to the task. Although the red fox is the largest of the fox family, it remains a lightly built creature. As such, the fox is vulnerable to other stronger prairie predators, including wolves, coyotes and eagles. But the fox's light build grants it a nimbleness that it turns to its advantage. Fast and agile, foxes are capable of leaping obstacles over two metres in height and are also adept swimmers, employing their versatility both in their own hunts and in escaping other hunters. The fox family unit is an important part of their success in the wild. The responsibility for looking after the young is shared between the parents and the older children, reinforcing social bonds while allowing the parents the time they need to hunt and provide. Red foxes have a keen sense of smell and excellent eyesight, but it is their acute hearing that sets them apart on the prairie. Utilising their auditory talents in the hunt for even the smallest game, foxes are capable of detecting the rustling of a tiny rodent from 100 metres away. Even when hiding underground, prairie mice are not protected from the ears of foxes. Listening through layers of soil or snow, foxes can determine the location of their unseen prey before launching their distinctive pounce attack. The red fox's characteristic bushy tail is an important adaptation to their open plains habitat. Not only does it assist in balance, it also aids in protecting them against the elements. Wild foxes inhabit burrows during mating periods. For the most part, they sleep in the open. During the harsh winter months on the prairie, temperatures regularly drop below freezing. By wrapping themselves in their densely furred tails, foxes are able to maintain their body temperature even when sleeping on snow. Primarily feeding on small prairie animals such as rabbits and rodents, when game becomes scarce, foxes can easily switch their carnivorous diet to an omnivorous one, targeting plants, berries and insects. Foxes are also forward planning, storing food to see them through the lean times. And by managing multiple small cache across their territories, foxes protect themselves against catastrophic losses from raiding animals. Incredibly adaptable creatures, the fox is able to adjust to environmental changes in a way that few other animals can match. On the prairie, there are few images as stirring as a herd of wild horses roaming the rangeland. Considered living symbols of the pioneering spirit of the West, the history of this animal and its connection with the landscape goes back much further. The horse family, Equidae, originally evolved on the plains of North America. However, after the last ice age, the change in climate and the arrival of human hunters resulted in horses dying out on the continent. Fortunately, the horse had spread to Asia, Africa and Europe, saving the species from extinction. And it was from Europe that horses eventually returned to America after an absence of many thousands of years. Today, wild horses occupy much of the United States with the abundant grasses of the prairie, making it a preferred rangeland. They are known as mustangs. Opinion is divided as to whether these creatures are true wild horses or feral animals artificially introduced to the environment. While the domestication of horses has altered the species from a biological standpoint, many scientists view the mustang as the modern return of an ancient plains animal. Although adult horses have no natural predators across the plains, horses have evolved as prey animals and prefer to live in the safety of herds. Males compete for mating rights with females, and herds tend to consist of a dominant stallion with a harem of mares and their young. Across the open prairie, mustangs are known to look after their injured herd members and are able to live long lives of around 25 years in the wild. On the American grassland, wild horses are in conflict for grazing areas with domestic cattle. With a faster digestion rate, horses must consume more forage than cattle, but can obtain sufficient nutrition from poorer quality food sources, thus surviving in areas where cattle would starve. The prairie environment sustains a number of wild species that rely on the grasslands for forage, as well as domesticated livestock. The wild horse population is capable of doubling every four years, and without human intervention can threaten the balance of the plains ecosystem. For the mustang, it is not a question of survival, but a question of at what level the population will be maintained. From above, the true scale and immensity of this grassland environment becomes apparent. Ruling the skies above the prairie is the symbolic animal of the United States of America, the bald eagle. Bald eagles are seabirds, but are such adept hunters that they can be found throughout most of the country. Here on the inland plain, tree cover is limited, so few eagles can nest on the prairie. Instead, they use their uninterrupted view of the landscape to hunt land-based prey. In ancient times, this grassland was covered by a shallow inland sea. When the waters receded, around 55 million years ago, they left behind the flattened expanse that became the prairie. Gliding above this wide open landscape, the bald eagle utilizes its eyesight to an almost unfair advantage. With eyes almost as big as humans, the bald eagle is thought to see the world with a sharpness at least four times better than ours. A transparent inner eyelid slides across the eye every few seconds, wiping it free of dirt. Dual centers of focus allow eagles to see forward and sideways at the same time. Hovering hundreds of meters over the exposed terrain, the eagle is granted unimpeded views of all the activity below. And on a landscape this broad, little can escape the eagle's eye. As seabirds, bald eagles subsist primarily on a seafood diet, and even in inland environments, they keep a close watch on the groundwater for signs of fish. Diving from above with speeds over 150 kilometers an hour, bald eagles dispatch their quarry with their highly developed talons. Immobilizing prey with a grip strength ten times greater than that of a human, the bald eagle finishes the job by sinking its hind claws into the victim's vital organs. The majesty and power of the bald eagle has made it a sacred bird in almost all Native American cultures. For the Plains Indians, who inhabit the prairie region of the United States, the bald eagle features prominently in their ceremonial sun dance. During the ritual, a medicine man waves a fan of eagle feathers from the Sikh tribe members to the sky, so that the eagle may carry their prayers for healing to the Creator. The bald eagle's distribution throughout the United States is a conservation success story. With the species returning from the brink of domestic extinction, hunting and habitat loss played a role, but the biggest culprit was the pesticide DDT, which caused sterilization of birds or eggs too brittle for brooding parents to sit on. A coordinated conservation effort across North America, as well as the banning of DDT, prevented the birds from disappearing from the United States altogether. Today, the eagles are no longer on the endangered list, and are once again present in healthy numbers all over the country. In the world of the wild, survival of the fittest is a fact of life. Here on the open plains of the prairie, one species has taken this motto quite literally. Often referred to as antelope, pronghorns are hoofed mammals native to the grasslands of North America. But despite their antelope-like appearance, pronghorns are actually more closely related to giraffes. The second fastest terrestrial animal on the planet, the pronghorn is a highly evolved runner. The would-be snack is running away. With top speeds estimated to be around 90 kilometers an hour, pronghorns can comfortably hold a half-paced gallop for miles on end. So not only are pronghorns the fastest animal in the Western Hemisphere, they are also the most durable. Both sprinters and marathoners, for pronghorns survival on the plains really does come down to being the fittest. The fleet-footed pronghorn has a range of adaptations that allow for such speed across the expansive terrain of the prairie. A light bone structure and a short coat of hollow hair means that the pronghorn is lightweight. Cushioned toes on their hooves act as shock absorbers, and an enlarged heart, lungs and windpipe allow extra air to be taken into the body while running. Pronghorns are also highly alert to the dangers of the prairie home. Stalked by predators such as cougars, coyotes and eagles, they have keenly developed a vision. Preferring to graze in exposed grassland, they are able to identify predators over a kilometer away. When danger is spotted, the distinctive patch of long white hair on the pronghorn's rump stands on end. Raising their hair to raise the alarm, this unique warning system alerts fellow herd members to the threat. The question of why the pronghorn is so much faster than the carnivores that roam the prairie has puzzled researchers. Being able to outrun your pursuers is one thing, but leaving them this far behind seems excessive. The answer lies in the distant past. Fossilized remains of an extinct cat species known as the American cheetah has led researchers to believe that around 10,000 years ago, the prairie was home to much faster carnivores. The hypothesis is that the pronghorn evolved its speed in response to these super fast cats. And while the American cheetah is long extinct, the pronghorn continues to run without rival on the modern prairie. Journeying from their highland summer range to their lowland winter range, pronghorns undertake the longest overland migration of any animal in North America. Close to 250 kilometers each way, this epic trek in search of feeding grounds is testament to the endurance of these remarkable athletes. Preserving wildlife corridors across such a vast landscape is challenging, but to protect a migrating animal, it is vital to protect its migration route. The flat, seemingly endless grassland of the prairie is a unique ecosystem inhabited by a diversity of life. In this episode, we have explored bison, red foxes, wild horses, bald eagles, and pronghorns. Once covering most of North America, since European settlement, the prairie has been much reduced, and today is considered one of the least protected environments in the United States. Conservation and regeneration efforts are gaining momentum, and success stories such as the bison and bald eagles are proving the worth of such endeavors. This work must continue and grow in order to preserve this cherished landscape as one of the wonders of the world of the wild.